The definition of "Hard Brick" is a phone that cannot be booted into any mode (including download, recovery). Worse case is a phone that does not respond to the buttons at all (power, menu, home, back, and volume). I have searched through all XDA forums and keyworded the net for hours, convinced that there had to be a free or cheep way to unbrick my hard bricked I747. I found leaked instructions that outlined how to bridge a specific (very small) transistor (named R313) inside the phone in order to trigger "SD Card Mode." The SD card was prepared to reinstall boot img and stalk ROM prior to triggering SD Card Mode. However, after opening my phone I found that the phone used to illustrate and show where the R313 transistor was located was designed totally different than my model. There was no way to know where the R313 was. Evidently, the S3 design can differ depending on carrier or maybe time purchased.

So, if it is unlikely for most of us that we will be able to find and bridge the R313 transistor, then there are only two other solutions that I was able to find. TJig, which is about $60, or send phone to Samsung for warranty service (if still under warranty). My phone is still under warranty and I just sent my phone in to Samsung. The question remains, "will Samsung be able to see if a hard bricked phone is customized or has a flash count?" or do they even look. If phone hard bricked, one can boot the phone into download mode with the right equipment. Download mode reveals the flash count. If Samsung checks flash count, then I assume TJig may be my only option. Or maybe Samsung will offer to unbrick my "out of warranty" phone for less than the price of a TJig. Hard to say. I will post my results when I get them.

If you are out of warranty, you may try calling around to service providers. The S3 is still the most popular phone on the planet; there is a good chance that a serve provider somewhere has a TJig and would charge you $20 or so to fix your phone with it.

Please add to this post if you can contribute. Especially if you have gone the warranty route and can report what happened.

If anyone there hard bricked his phone like me and do not feel comfortable with SD card method, I would recommend him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by floykoe

The definition of "Hard Brick" is a phone that cannot be booted into any mode (including download, recovery). Worse case is a phone that does not respond to the buttons at all (power, menu, home, back, and volume). I have searched through all XDA forums and keyworded the net for hours, convinced that there had to be a free or cheep way to unbrick my hard bricked I747. I found leaked instructions that outlined how to bridge a specific (very small) transistor (named R313) inside the phone in order to trigger "SD Card Mode." The SD card was prepared to reinstall boot img and stalk ROM prior to triggering SD Card Mode. However, after opening my phone I found that the phone used to illustrate and show where the R313 transistor was located was designed totally different than my model. There was no way to know where the R313 was. Evidently, the S3 design can differ depending on carrier or maybe time purchased.

So, if it is unlikely for most of us that we will be able to find and bridge the R313 transistor, then there are only two other solutions that I was able to find. TJig, which is about $60, or send phone to Samsung for warranty service (if still under warranty). My phone is still under warranty and I just sent my phone in to Samsung. The question remains, "will Samsung be able to see if a hard bricked phone is customized or has a flash count?" or do they even look. If phone hard bricked, one can boot the phone into download mode with the right equipment. Download mode reveals the flash count. If Samsung checks flash count, then I assume TJig may be my only option. Or maybe Samsung will offer to unbrick my "out of warranty" phone for less than the price of a TJig. Hard to say. I will post my results when I get them.

If you are out of warranty, you may try calling around to service providers. The S3 is still the most popular phone on the planet; there is a good chance that a serve provider somewhere has a TJig and would charge you $20 or so to fix your phone with it.

Please add to this post if you can contribute. Especially if you have gone the warranty route and can report what happened.

OK, so I sent in my bricked S3 (out of warrantee due to multiple flashes) to Samsung's Warrantee Service Department in Texas. They replaced something and sent it to QC, who put there stamp of approval on it and sent it to shipping. It is now on it's way back to me via 2 day air UPS. So I guess know one noticed the flash count or modified status. It is being sent back to me a warrantee S3.

I can't wait to brake the warrantee again (:

Results may very, but if your phone is with-in the warrantee window it can't hirt to try warrantee repair. You may know that you broke the warrantee, but they might be to busy to notice. They do pay for shipping both ways. Service is fast. All I had to pay for was the packaging materials.

The EBAY service mentioned above also looks lioke a good deal, for those of you with no warrantee. Check it out.

LOL, I am up over 200 flashes on my note II, but my daughter's S3 bricked when Iflashed an international kernal to an AT&T specific ROM. I guess that is a no no. There are certain things that will brick your phone; as long as you don't do those things, you can flash 5 times a day if you want. The important thing is to read all threads and ask questions before you flash. However, even the experienced and careful flashercan make a mistake. It is important to know what to do if this happens to you.

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